The best way to think of this is, you are giving Panhel a way to weed out any EXTRA invites you might get. If you can only go to 7 parties, but 8 groups invite you back, the lowest group on your list gets the axe. Otherwise, you will go to every group that invites you back. You can only "cut" a chapter if all your favorites haven't cut you first.

We used to do the same thing in reverse. We could get invitations before our parties and cut chapters if we had more parties that we could go to. The other way gives Panhel more time to plan who goes to which parties and to inform the chapters which PNMs will be coming back that day.

I prefer the old way. It makes way more sense to say to a PNM "Hey, you got invites to all 10, but you can only go to 7. Which ones do you want to cut?" than to allow them to rank and think they are cutting when they're not.

That being said, the way it's done now is a big time saver.

But I think it needs to be explained to PNMs much better. I think Panhellenics may be too afraid that it looks like just the sororities are cutting, so it's phrased in a way that makes it sound more mutual. Unfortunately, it's leading to a ton of misunderstandings and bad feelings.

I like that terminology.. backup. That's exactly how everyone should see it including my daughter.

But really what are the odds of getting your first choice house?

That all depends on the school, the year's rush, the chapter, and the PNM. You can't Vegas-handicap it unfortunately. (I'm sure it would be done there if you could.)

There are some years where it seems everyone gets their first choice - chapters AND PNMs - and some years where it seems nobody does. You also have to throw in the factor that some people will remember things differently after the fact and report it thusly.

I prefer the old way. It makes way more sense to say to a PNM "Hey, you got invites to all 10, but you can only go to 7. Which ones do you want to cut?" than to allow them to rank and think they are cutting when they're not.

That being said, the way it's done now is a big time saver.

But I think it needs to be explained to PNMs much better. I think Panhellenics may be too afraid that it looks like just the sororities are cutting, so it's phrased in a way that makes it sound more mutual. Unfortunately, it's leading to a ton of misunderstandings and bad feelings.

I agree. In the end, it's essentially the same thing, but to "cut" a chapter is very powerful.

But I think it needs to be explained to PNMs much better. I think Panhellenics may be too afraid that it looks like just the sororities are cutting, so it's phrased in a way that makes it sound more mutual. Unfortunately, it's leading to a ton of misunderstandings and bad feelings.

This.

I think they try too hard to make it seem like the selection is up to the PNMs, so as not to scare them into reconsidering what they've gotten themselves into.

Yeah, selection is mutual, but I feel like it is tilted in the direction of the chapters. More of a PNM's recruitment experience is up to the chapters than Panhellenics like to admit (because they don't want to make the process seem so intimidating.)

I mean, you are ranking, but the chapters are inviting/not inviting. They have most of the control. The only exception to this is preference where the final decision seems to be equally up to the PNM and chapter's choices.

__________________"Remember that apathy has no place in our Sorority." - Kelly Jo Karnes, Pi

I prefer the old way. It makes way more sense to say to a PNM "Hey, you got invites to all 10, but you can only go to 7. Which ones do you want to cut?" than to allow them to rank and think they are cutting when they're not.

There are many, many, many reasons why the new way is better. PNM confusion is pretty minor as compared to how it used to go.

Well, it's not that way for all PNMs. There are PNMs with quite a bit of power. We just hear a lot from the girls that are on this end of the spectrum. It's a bell curve. The other side is represented by girls that receive invitations from every group and get to pick and choose the chapters they return to visit. They have a lot more power than the chapters. In the end, they pick the chapter they want to join.

But I think it needs to be explained to PNMs much better. I think Panhellenics may be too afraid that it looks like just the sororities are cutting, so it's phrased in a way that makes it sound more mutual. Unfortunately, it's leading to a ton of misunderstandings and bad feelings.

I agree. First off, I cannot tell you how many times I heard the word "cutting." No matter how many times the girls heard that they weren't "cutting" anyone or anything, they continued to think they were! Not everyone was happy that they were getting back houses they'd "cut."

I think I heard the term "alternate" used a few times. Like, on the first day, we indicated our top six sororities, followed by our bottom three in order, and they were our "alternates." I thought this was an interesting description (if you don't get all of your top six, you start filling from your alternates) and a very mutual term. I just wish the cutting thing had been emphasized more.

Good choice. It took my daughter a few times to get that. She got her first choice; her first choice got her. In her version, many girls were happy and got their first choices. In my son's version as security watching from the upper decks there were many girls who were crying and were unhappy...I had a hard time imaging they were at the same bid day event!